It seems like madness that – in most companies – functional departments such as finance, IT, sales and operations are rigidly separated by their own targets, KPIs and systems.
It’s true that everyone needs to focus on their own specific function.
But each function acts as one piece of a complicated jigsaw which cannot exist without other teams. As well as some form of effective collaboration.
This has additional complexities when you consider the role of third parties. Particularly those concerning financial and payment processes and operations.
More often than not, finance directors or financial controllers are the ones being tasked with steering the ship when addressing the role of legacy systems, directives and processes. Whilst also trying to streamline services within their own department.
Integrators are an adept way of assimilating cross-functional systems which improve collaboration and bring departments together. They are also key to reducing costs and inaccuracies, which ultimately improves the experience for employees and customers along the way.
The finance bod may be a specialist in their own field, who is fully able to describe why their systems and processes are flawed. However, we’ve found that most have no real insight in to what technology is available and how it can best serve them via integration with legacy systems.
Integrator – Effecting change
The finance department’s responsibility (and that of the wider business) is to ensure that its requirements are met without negatively impacting another.
Bridging incompatible systems to align with corporate strategy can be achieved by introducing a third party, ‘one-stop-shop’. In other words, an integrator which aligns itself with all involved can deliver a scalable, efficient & consolidated back-office system.
“Suddenly the right arm knows what the left is doing and there hasn’t been a host of meetings taking key workers away from their day jobs to create it.” – Anish Kapoor, AccessPay CEO
The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) aims to establish an online facility which allows SMEs to quickly see which bank is best suited to them. This would offer greater transparency over charges and services.
But a compare and contrast site isn’t quite enough. Businesses have different needs, all are often complicated . To make it work, a sophisticated application allowing access to a company’s financial details would be required.
With an integrator as a central element, this would not be necessary. An integrator could establish current and future business needs, whilst pinpointing the precise bank products and service for the job.
An integrator could also develop an advanced automated system that would effectively manage company cash flow, offer heightened transparency and factor in bank costs.
It would also be far more cost-effective to use a third party. Particularly due to the fact that they are specialists in:
- merging the needs of different business functions,
- integrating these into legacy systems with no downtime or security problems
- adept at building scalable solutions which can be altered at the drop of the hat to suit the ever-changing business.
With just one point of contact, a whole host of specialists could be on-hand; offering easier, more efficient solutions for employees and customers. In my opinion, it doesn’t pay to go down any other route.
Corporates need help with disparate tech from AccessPay on Vimeo.
